Uptown Radio

Whole Foods is set to open several compact stores around NYC. The first smaller store will open on East 69th street. Just around the corner, a local store has the same gourmet offerings. How does it prepare for the upcoming competition?

HOST, CRISTINA MACAYA: This morning, the city council debated the 2025 budget for health, mental health, disability, and addiction. An hour before the hearing, protestors gathered on Chambers Street to rally against what they say is the criminalization of mental illness. Giulia Leo was there.

LEO 1

From the age of 17 until her early 40s Helen “Skip” Skipper says she cycled in and out of jail

SKIPPER 1

Every year I was locked up or getting released. But every year I came in with unchecked mental illness, with substance abuse problems. I was never given treatment. I was never given support

LEO 2

Skip says she was an addict who sold drugs. And because she didn’t get the support she needed, she continued to break the law… and to get arrested.

SKIPPER 2

Mental illness, behavioral health as a whole has always been criminalized. Instead of providing us treatment and support, they throw us up under the jail.

LEO 3

Today, Skip is joined by a crowd of dozens rallying outside City Hall.

[FADE IN “CHANTING” AND RUN UNDER LEO 3]

They are asking the City to invest in community support for people with mental illnesses - rather than spending money on more beds for jails. Jay Edidin is with The Women’s Community Justice Association. He says the city’s justice system is broken and women are the most impacted.

EDIDIN 1

So this is happening at a time when the incarceration of women is increasing at double the rate of the incarceration of men, where it's just taken off exponentially over the last decade. Nationwide, 70% of women involved in the criminal legal system have mental health diagnosis. At Rikers Island that’s actually 80%.

LEO 4

As an alternative to incarceration, Edidin would like to see more programs offering peer support. Skip agrees. She’s working towards a phD in criminology.

SKIPPER 3

Peer support is an evidence based practice. It has been empirically researched to work. Use us, allow us to have a seat at the table. Your recidivism problems and costs problems of those with behavioral health will be mitigated.

LEO 5

Skipper says she got help. Not from the city. But she did manage to get clean.

SKIPPER 4

And I haven’t looked back ever since then.

LEO 6

Giulia Leo, Columbia Radio News

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Today on the show, do voters really care about sexual misconduct accusations against politicians? And do they really influence the way people vote? Whole Foods is starting to open smaller branches throughout the city. As a new one opens in the Upper East Side, there are fears they will take business away from local grocery stores. A new Broadway show “Suffs” tells the story of the Suffrage movement and how American women got the vote. And we start our new series of reflections from our reporters.

A new Broadway show called “Suffs” opens next week. The musical-

written by Shaina Taub and supported by producers Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai - tells the story of how American women got the vote. It was supposed to debut in 2020 for the 100th anniversary of American women’s suffrage. Like many productions… it got delayed due to the pandemic. As our reporter Marine Saint finds, that delay means the show’s focus on women’s rights is timelier than ever.

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